Ag Food and Resource Economics Summer Experiences

My week 8 blog from TMK

One of the more interesting things I did in my internship this week was give a tour of the PWPM facility to several Campbell’s Soup procurement managers. They were researching sources for ingredients of a new product being developed, a premium soup with healthier ingredients and one for which they can advertise points of being local and fresh.

I have always had a desire to work at Campbell’s since they are so well known in the food industry, and their headquarters in Camden NJ is across the river from my home in Philadelphia. I am attracted to the responsibilities of a procurement manager because instead of just knowing a lot about one specific skill you have to be able to assimilate all sorts of information and communicate it to your managers so they can act on it in the best interests of the company.

Another interesting experience this past week was my participation in a meeting with the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority, aka PhilaPort. Our meeting with them was to see if PWPM can join our marketing efforts with theirs due to the fact that they own the property the market sits on and one of PhilaPort’s missions is to promote local businesses that bring activity to the Philadelphia port facilities. While PWPM has a relatively modest marketing budget, PhilaPort seems well funded to help companies who operate in their properties. Everyone seemed to agree that we should all work together for our mutual benefit.

I have also been preparing for and looking forward to giving a tour to a high level food industry delegation from China next week. They are interested in warehousing logistics and advanced food safety practices, and those are areas in which PWPM is very advanced. This is the first time I am giving a tour on my own, and I believe that what I have learned about PWPM will allow me to effectively communicate this information, although this time it will be through a Chinese interpreter since the delegation is not very fluent in the English language.